Taking the Mantel
by Rokaiu
Summary: After the Bottle ship incident, Samus decided to settle down for a while. She adopted a young boy named Lucas and taught him everything she knew about being a soldier, and a bounty hunter. This is his story.
1. Prolouge

I don't remember when she left. I just woke up one day and she was gone.

No note, no recording, nothing that could be a sign that she was alright and had a good reason for leaving me all alone.

All I was left with was the ship, a power suit modeled after her own that she gave me for my birthday last year, and a single egg of unknown origin.


	2. Stakeout

It was cold. I probably should have listened to Duchess when she told me to check out the temperature of this forsaken planet. I was only wearing some my combat boots, some jeans, and a t-shirt. Of course I had my power suit on, but it only kept me warm when it was on. It was turned off right now because I was trying not to stand out anymore than I already did.

The planet I was on was simply known as IP-678. The native species were shaggy humanoids that stood about ten feet tall. They had no spoken language, but could communicate through telepathy. I easily stood out, but so long as I kept my power suit turned off, it was believable that I was only a tourist.

I was tracking a modified Zebesian who had managed to escape the bottle ship before its demolition. It had been in hiding for years, jumping from planet to planet in order to escape detection. It was probably on a mission to revive the space pirate organization, and was either looking for a leader, or more Zebesians to join it and aid it in its search.

It was doing well for itself until a few months ago when its hologram generator malfunctioned for a brief second at an interstellar transport station. A middle aged guard who liked his job a bit too much noticed when a perfectly normal human being transformed into a monster for a moment, then changed back. By the time he had reviewed the tape enough times to make sure he wasn't crazy, the Zebesian had already left the station.

Since my mom had already disappeared by that point, I was called in to hunt down the creature. After months of going through all the information that my info brokers gave me, and hundreds of false leads that usually ended with me having to fight my way out of a hoard of criminals, I finally tracked the Zebesian to this miserable planet.

It was funding its search for recruits and a leader by selling a drug called "Soul Purge". It induced alleviated all doubts, fears and sins from a person's soul. It was once a medical drug used to treat patients with severe depression. They stopped producing it legally however because it had an extremely high dependence rate. Patients who used it became so dependent that they actually killed their doctors to get some more, then realized what they did and immediately took massive amounts of the drug to relieve themselves and repeated the cycle over and over again.

Over the past few months large amounts of the drug had come to this planet and then been distributed to planets inhabited by species who were prone to depression. It was useless to the inhabitants of IP-678 because their minds were always connected to the minds of those around them. There were no secrets between them so there was no cause for doubt or fear. What the planet was perfect for however, was smuggling drugs. There were plenty of caves on the planet and they all seemed to be connected. It was too easy to get lost in those cave which made them perfect for hiding drugs until they could be shipped to their final destination.

_Found him yet?_ said a voice in my head.

_No, Duchess._ I replied. _Keep the ship circling in the upper stratosphere of the planet until I call you. Also, stay out of my head on this mission. The natives of this planet are telepathic and may freak out if they start hearing mind-voices they can't identify. _

Duchess was my partner. she usually had to stay hidden until I closed in on my target. If she went strolling down the street with me on a hunt, the target would be gone faster than you could blink, and so would everyone else. This was because Duchess was a Metroid. The egg she was in was one of the presents my mom left me with when she disappeared. Not only would she cause a panic because she was a creature that was considered extremely danagerous, but also because of one more thing. Duchess was a Queen Metroid. On top of that, she seemed to be one of the Metroids that were genetically modified on the Bottle Ship to be immune to cold.

The only possible reason that my mother hadn't destroyed the egg was because somehow she knew that duchess would be sentient and sterile. Another thing that made her unique and an invaluable partner was that she wasn't any larger than a tiger. This meant she was large enough to help me take down criminals when I closes in on them, but small enough that she could travel with me on missions.

I was scanning the crowd for another human because that was the disguise that the Zebesian was known to use. I'd been staking out the market for a month and my efforts had finally borne fruit yesterday. I was watching a camera feed of the market area and noticed someone who looked like a human wrapped in scarves. They were handing a tablet that I suspected had a list of supplies on it to a shopkeeper. This was suspicious enough to make me want to come back the next day, but I was convinced that it was my target when Duchess told me later that day that she had detected no human minds in the market that day.

All I had to do was try to stay unnoticed and I could- (click)

_If you don't do exactly what I say,_ hissed a voice behind me, _then your corpse will never be found._

"W-what did I do wrong?" I said while putting on my best scared tourist act. The stuttering part wasn't too hard because I was still freezing. "I-I'm just a-"

_I know exactly what _and_ who you are Lucas Aran, The Bounty Hunter!_


	3. Captured

As it said my name chills ran down my spine. I felt a different kind of coldness as I realized that I had fallen into a trap."W-who are you talking about?" I said, trying to preserve my image as a tourist for a while longer.

_Do not play dumb with me boy!_ It hissed._ I know you are the son of Samus Aran. This trap was originally meant for her, but apparently she wasn't stupid enough to fall for it._ It made a noise that sounded like a cross between screeching and gasping which I assumed was the sound of its laughter. _Did you really think that I wouldn't notice if my camouflage suit failed, even for an instant? I did that on purpose to lure in your mother!_

I decided that it was time to stop trying to play dumb. "What do you want with my mom?" I asked.

_That infernal bounty hunter, Samus Aran,_he said her name like a curse,_ has always been a thorn in our side. She was the reason that the space pirates were destroyed all those years ago, but finally, it will rise again!_

_But wait!_ I thought to myself. _Zebesians are disorganized and wild by nature. The only way they could actually form an organization is if... _"Oh no," I said aloud.

_Oh yes little hunter, we have found Ridley! _It started laughing again.

I was in shock. I was nowhere near ready to handle Ridley. Even mom feared that creature. The last one in existence was supposed to have been killed on the Bottle Ship by a queen metroid. "H-how did you find him?" This time the fear in my voice was't faked.

_Why don't you ask him yourself when you meet him hunter?_ Said the zebesian, its voice full of malice.

"Y-you mean, Ridley's here?"

I never got an answer. The zebesian started laughing again and the next thing I knew I was falling into a bottomless pit of darkness.


End file.
